Yesterday we celebrated Mother’s Day. I must say, I did not realize (or appreciate) the impact my mom had on my life until well into my adult years. I think we all go through the phase in adolescence where we try to downplay the influence of our parents, and magnify areas we feel they should have done better in parenthood. It not only took me moving out of their house to appreciate their intentional pursuit of Christ in raising their kids, but several more years after that until I realized how unique my upbringing was. I’m so thankful for my mom and how even as a young child she taught me truths about who God is and who I am. I learned so many fundamentals as a kid that many of my friends are trying to learn now in adulthood. It’s a culture shift, and my mom built that into my worldview from as far back as I can remember. I have a hard head and did my share of “soul searching” and rebelling in ridiculous pride, but her steadfastness in her surrender to the Lord in her life and mine is what paved the road for my own pursuit of Christ’s heart. I am forever thankful for her long suffering and relentless trust in God’s goodness.

This is my all-time fav pic of my mom (on her wedding day).

I mean, talk about hot mama!

Since my family lives in Missouri, I don’t get to celebrate many holidays with them except for the big ones (Thanksgiving or Christmas). That kind of sucks since my fam is the best ever, but it’s not as bad since Ryan’s family all live in Houston, so we do get to celebrate with them.

Ryan’s grandma and one of his cousins are celiac, so they’re not able to eat gluten. For most gatherings someone usually picks up a gluten free dessert for the 2 of them from the store. But for occasions that recognize either of them personally, like Mother’s Day or their birthdays, I like to do a little something special for them. Most of the rest of the family are health nuts anyway, so I decided to bake a gluten free cake for our Mother’s Day celebrations.

As you can see, it was a big hit. I got the recipe from this blog, if you want to try it! It’s so moist, and I was asked several times if it was ACTUALLY gluten free, because you can’t taste a difference!

The only things I changed were that 1) I made it 3 layers vs. 4, simply because I only had 3 cake pans. Same batch portions, the layers were just a little thicker so I baked them for just a little bit longer. Because I did only 3 layers it left more icing, so 2) I iced the entire outside of the cake. 3) I also added a little bit (probably 1/4 cup) of mini chocolate chips into the icing and mixed it up before icing the cake. We also had some strawberry ice cream to eat with it, which complimented the cake really well!

This week has been kind of crazy, and I’ve been all over the place, but I’m just reminding myself that summer is not very far away, which means vacation is not very far away. We’ve got some exciting things planned for the summer and I can hardly wait! Hang on, friends, we are so close!

I will leave you with an image (or 2) that reminded me of how strange our world is this weekend. I took lots of pictures at the Houston Art Car Parade on Saturday, but these 2 really stuck out to me.

zebra stilts lady

and Jesus on a scooter

Enjoy your week, and have a happy Monday (it is what you make it)! ;)